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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

Upshifting

By Bruce Hauben, Bruce993@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - March 2004
Northeast Region Logo
  • I doubt that many readers of this column could be characterized as insular, provincial or Europhobic. After all, look at the automobiles we own and love and where many choose to vacation. Yet, speaking for myself only, I (we) often forget those areas of society and life where Europe may be ahead of the US…always depending upon your point of view. One person’s technology is another’s intrusion in their life. One example being cell phones and their uses. In some parts of Europe one can use a cell phone to buy soda from a vending machine and put that purchase on your credit card without ever withdrawing the card from your wallet.

    •    
    Well, it looks as though GPS will be altering the way people drive in Europe and that technology may find its way over here. GPS-based systems are being developed for toll collection, traffic control and insurance programs through a process being called ‘telematics’, the technology that allows the exchange of information between vehicles and the outside world. This is not to imply that we don’t already have telematics in the US – On Star type devices – but Europe seems to be pushing the envelope faster than us. Telematics Research Group Inc. estimates that by 2010 the US will have 40 million telematics-enabled vehicles, up from a present day 6 million.
       
    Most of us using EZ Pass or FastLane love what it does for us, but that’s the tip of the ice berg. With a GPS telematics system tollbooths will disappear, they won’t be necessary anymore. Tracking devices in vehicles will be telling centralized computers where you got onto a toll road and where you got off and automatically billing your account. Stretch your mind a little and you can quickly visualize how easy it will be to create or eliminate a toll on any given road with a few simple key strokes. Maybe the MA Pike would charge tolls during commuting hours and mid-day would be free. Telematics would also create the ability to extend toll coverage to smaller roads not normally charging tolls and set charges on a sliding scale depending upon traffic density. Such systems could also improve traffic flow; anticipate jam ups and route traffic to alternate roads.
       
    In fact Germany is the farthest along in implementing GPS telematics as “Toll Collect” is a product of a DaimlerChrysler and Deutsche Telekom partnership. As one might expect they’ve been having problems integrating the on-board GPS systems with the different software packages.
      
    Insurance companies are very interested in the technology as a means to identify and reward – or penalize – appropriate drivers. After a 2 year trial, drivers in Ireland can get up to a 50% reduction in their premiums from insurer AXA if they install the GPS system in their car. It automatically tells AXA periodically whether or not the driver has been obeying the speed limits. Many such uses will have to be voluntary and naturally there is the privacy issue with the devices.
      
    The whole concept reeks of “Big Brother” and is the main reason the above uses for GPS telematics in the US will be very slow to be adopted, if ever. You won’t be able to claim you were visiting your aunt when the accident occurred if you were actually on the track at Watkins Glen. And it’s our god given right to drive 90 mph if we so chose. Hell, I get mad at any driver that is not doing 10 mph over the posted speed limit as that is the minimum allowed speed in my mind. Did you know there is an International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Assoc. based in DC? Of course, is there any business or non-profit concept that does not have its own association? Tim McGuckin, their director of technology says “I don’t think Americans like the idea of their privacy or personal freedom being impinged upon”…duh!
      
    The Greater North American International Automobile Show (isn’t that an oxymoron?) in Detroit has shown the bi-polar aspect of the automobile industry. I know, the manufacturers are always saying that they merely produce what the public wants, but I for one don’t know which comes first, the chicken or the egg. On one hand the number of choices and the amount of power available is escalating exponentially if one wants a muscle car or truck and at the same time greenies have more choices along the lines of Toyota’s Prius.
       
    We know about the Carrera GT with a V10 604 hp power plant and the new Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR which is sold out for the next two years of production. Well Chrysler exhibited their image concept ME412 with 12 cylinders and 850 hp and Bentley’s Continental GT, twin turbo, 12 cylinder 552 hp already has a 2 year waiting list at only $149K. I doubt that it would be much of a tow vehicle but Dodge has their SRT-10 truck powered by a Viper 500 hp V10 for a mere $45K.
       
    On the other side of the aisle Mercedes-Benz showed their Euro “Smart Car” which Brock Yates described as a Parisian phone booth on wheels, and that when it arrives in the American market next year should carry a NHTSB warning telling drivers to stay at least 3 miles from any Kenworth or Peterbuilt rig.
       
    I’ll close with a thought to sleep on from Mr. Yates. “Moreover, this binge of high performance in Detroit may be an example of the nation’s need for frivolity and excess to counteract the looming threat of terrorism and the nagging trauma of 9/11. But they may serve as a talisman of optimism even when parked, shiny and silent – inert symbols of an ardor for freedom more important to the national psyche than to real-world transportation.”

    VERY IMPORTANT RULES FOR LIVING
     

    • Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
    • Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
    • Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks.
    • Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
    • Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
    • Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
    • You read about all these terrorists – most came here legally and then hung around on expired visas for as long as 10-15 years. Now, compare that to Blockbuster, if you are two DAYS late with a video those people are all over you. I think we should put Blockbuster in charge of immigration.  
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